Jiaojiehe is a small village just beyond the Great
Wall, north of Huairou, in the mountains
north of Beijing. If you are into Google Earth then try entering 40 27 60.00 N, 116 35 45.00 E into "Fly to". (See
map below.) Yuehong first took me
there in May 2004. It was love at first sight and within a week we had agreed to buy
and develop a small property. It was probably a good decision. Since then
property values in the village have rocketed, building materials are nearly 50%
more expensive and the Yuan has appreciated. This is the final result, it is an
oasis of tranquility in a very large Chinese desert, we shall miss it horribly
when the times comes to go. Coincidentally, it happens to be the best investment
I ever made which is one reason why we won't live here for ever.

We started the project in the early Summer of 2004. The design
went through a number of changes. We are very grateful to professional architect
(Nancy) Huang Nannan who did a lot of work on it and made the drawings. I have
to say that it ended up rather bigger than we had originally intended....

First the original house had to be demolished - it was the
only sensible decision. Other traditional houses remain in the village, although
whether any will be conserved in the long term is another matter. Next the foundations were laid and the shell erected by local
villagers in the late Summer and Autumn of 2004, under the capable supervision
of Yuehong's father Mr. Chen Guoliang, a retired civil engineer who insisted the
building should be earthquake proof! The roof was erected just before the onset
of winter 2004-5 and the whole project hibernated for some 5 months as planned.

Progress through summer 2005 went in bursts not least because
many of the workers came from rural Shandong and had to go home to deal with the
harvest - the villagers were involved in a local government reafforestation
project. The pictures give some idea of the changes made to the
site in the 18 months from start to finish.

The original house seen from
south-east, it was May 2004 and all the trees in the village totally green:

By September 2005 things looked more than a little different:

In late November 2005, the wall above dividing the 'kitchen
garden' from the 'vegetable/fruit garden' was demolished, creating entirely new
views; this one from a slightly more southerly position with the house
essentially complete in December 2005. Of course the trees are bare as it is
mid-winter: All the original fruit trees have been kept and one flowering shrub
moved safely inside the new garden.